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Dear Group,
I'd like to comment on the origins of the "Market Facilitation Index" and its
progeny (what Bill calls the "Squat" and his three other terms, the "Green",
the "Fake", and the "Fade").
I got involved with OmegaResearch relatively early in its history, at least
in its history with TradeStation, for example, my User No. is 253. Way back
then, as part of Omega's public relations efforts, they began to put out a
simple periodic newsletter. I don't recall what it was called - I believe
that they only put out a few issues of it before it folded. One of the
features of their newsletter was a regular column written by Omega's official
"technical analyst", again, whose name I don't recall (this wasn't Sam Tennis
--- he was their programmer; this other guy was a trader). I saved the
newsletters for years but threw them away several years ago, as they were
quite out of date. What I recall reading and saving was an article in one of
these newsletters by this official "technical analyst" about a new technical
analysis technique that Omega had programmed into TradeStation --- you
guessed it, it was called the "Market Facilitation Index" --- and the article
went on to discuss its application in various markets. Suffice it to say
that Bill was not the author of this article.
Several years later, I think that it was now the very late 80s or the early
90s, I recall seeing ads touting a new technical analysis technique - the ads
were Bill's and the technique was the "Market Facilitation Index." along with
his Squats etc. I got out my old articles, and lo and behold, it was the
same stuff, the same formulas, etc. I've never talked with Bill about this,
but I've never had a very good taste in my mouth about it either. Heavens
knows what the real truth is!
Sincerely,
Richard Josslin
Stewart Taylor wrote:
> I could be wrong, did some work with MFI several years ago.... seems like
> it was a Dick Arms concept.
>
> I do remember that TASC did a MFI deal years and years ago. You might be
> able to search their data base.
>
> Stewart.
>
> At 01:11 PM 12/14/98 -0800, Jim Osborn wrote:
> >"anatop" <anatop@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> >>Here is squat for what ever it is worth.
> >>
> >>{Paintbar: Squat}
> >>Condition1 = Ticks[0] > Ticks[1] and MFI(Ticks)[0] < MFI(Ticks)[1];
> >
> >Um... close, but it's actually: ...and MFI[0] > MFI[1].
> >That is, increasing volume AND increasing MFI.
> >
> >Ol' Bill claims to have invented the concept of MFI, but others
> >have pointed out that the concept, in inverse form mathematically
> >was really invented long ago by someone else (can't remember who).
> >Still, the squat as an indicator that often occurs near turning
> >points (what Bill opportunistically calls "fractals") does seem to
> >have some value, with enough other stuff around it, and I did first
> >hear about the idea from Bill Williams at a TAG lecture.
> >
> >As far as I can tell, that's the sum total of what Bill has to offer.
> >There have been some absolutely scathing reviews of his $5K "course"
> >here on this list. Having studied a bit of real chaos/fractal theory,
> >I think I can say that Bill's offerings have absolutely nothing to
> >do with that branch of mathematics. Just popular buzzwords at the time.
> >
> >Jim
> >
> >
> Stewart Taylor
> Taylor Fixed Income Outlook
> Voice: 501-219-9774
> Fax: 501-228-0963
> E-Mail: staylor@xxxxxxx
> Web Site: http://www.cei.net/~staylor/
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